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ALBUM: Macro // ARTIST: Jinjer
Following a brief taste of new tunes earlier in the year with the madcap EP Macro, Ukrainian hellions Jinjer are officially off the leash and more potent than ever, deftly roaring into third album territory with Macro due out next Friday.
Hailing from a warzone in the Donetsk province of Ukraine, heavy metal juggernauts Jinjer have dramatically risen to become a catastrophic sonic wrecking ball in just under a decade. Infamous for their progressive grooves, searing riffs and the jaw-dropping vocal flux wielded by frontwoman Tatiana Shmaylyuk, Jinjer boast a robust cocktail of death metal, prog rock and nu metal (plus the occasional tinge of hip hop and soul), and their upcoming third studio album Macro readily builds on the road paved by their EP Micro released earlier this year, roaring into a cataclysmic and dazzling sonic maelstrom.
Like a hurtling brick, Macro leaps out with On The Top; a madcap djenty web of technical bombardment packed full of off-kilter rhythmics hulking beneath the pure might of frontwoman Tatiana as she flits between grating roars, haunting whispers and melodic bliss on vocal duties. But it ain't all thrashing and bashing, with the opener brandishing the brutal beauty so often associated with this quartet (and let's be honest - there's nary a man, woman or other out there right now who can so effortlessly traverse so many wild stylistic shifts quite like Tatiana). Pit of Consciousness follows brandishing a cluster of staccato blastbeats and snare flair from beat lord Vladislav Ulasevish, while flexing the entire Jinjer machine equally with just the right amount of grunt.
ON THE TOP (JINJER)
Up next is a track that'll get Twelve Foot Ninja fans drooling, doling out Judgement (& Punishment), a gyrating journey laced with reggae and showing off yet another facet of Tatiana's vocals as she drawls over the sultry, offbeat instrumentals before hurling back into sharpened metal waters. Retrospection follows next packed full of bleak melodics and crushing interplay between guitarist Roman Ibramkhalilov and bassist Eugene Abdukhanov, marking a sublimely intimidating moment edging towards the middle of the album.
JUDGEMENT (& PUNISHMENT) (JINJER)
Midway through Macro marks some of the heaviest junctures, with back-to-back sucker punches via Pausing Death and Noah. While the djenty jaunt and razor sharp precision in the former will leave you gasping for breath (and the fact you could readily grate cheese on some of the vocal tones in this adventure), the latter thrusts gravelled vocals across a murky, blackened backdrop.
Up next, Home Back continues the delightfully off-kilter tones (and also a possible brief nod to the intro from Karnivool's iconic Roquefort), as all Jinjer members seamlessly flit between charismatic prog metal, lounge-laden jazzy respites and a cacophony of sludgy delights.
Closing out Macro are two of the most diverse tracks in town, first with penultimate track The Prophecy which will barely leave you with any bones as it pummels you into utter oblivion. Here, palm mutes and voracious basslines leave your ears splintered (but in the best possible way), before closing track lainnereP pulls a swifty and serves up a sinister yet soft, beautiful outing. lainnereP kicks off with haunting echoes before a lilting piano careens moodily through an empty universe and dank percussion builds around whispered vocals. The electronic tinges and sweeping melodics provide an unexpected yet fittingly dramatic shell for Macro proceedings to end on; it's cinematic, it's understated and it'll definitely haunt you long after those whispers trickle away.
Ultimately, there's a heap to digest and dissect at every turn with Macro; from the large-scale production to the intrinsic nuances, there's a gamut of emotion and experience at play that perpetuates Jinjer's inability to become musically pigeon-holed. Building on the foundations of Micro and other releases from the group's near-decade career, Macro will delight, challenge and maim in ways only Jinjer seem capable of achieving. Macro is a beserk, beguiling and downright badass time, and firmly leads Jinjer into their second decade of existence.
JINJER'S THIRD STUDIO ALBUM MACRO IS DUE OUT NEXT FRIDAY OCTOBER 25TH VIA NAPALM RECORDS, WITH PRE-ORDERS AVAILABLE HERE. PLUS YOU CAN CATCH JINJER IN ACTION FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER DOWN UNDER NEXT MARCH, TOUR INFO BELOW, AND FOR MORE JINJER INFO HEAD HERE.
BY TIANA SPETER